100lawrencec
April 7, 2021
Tora no Yu is a small, boutique hotel. We rented modern Japanese style room. They also have traditional Japanese rooms and Western style rooms. Check-in was fast and easy, the staff was friendly. The room was spacious and clean, with minimal furniture. At night, you get out the futon and make the bed yourself. It seems that they also have a small staff, we saw only three people during our stay, including the chef. But there were few customers too, only another family beside us for a total of 6 people, so it makes sense to have a reduced staff. The hotel has 17 rooms, the reception is on the ground floor, which becomes 2nd floor. On the first floor it's a nice, modern lobby and next to it is the dinning room, all decorated in a modern, contemporary style. The onsen is located on the B-floor (basement). We reserved dinner and breakfast and both were excellent. The only problems we had was when I tried to take a shower in the morning (the bath is closed between 23.00-6.00), it took a long time for hot water to come out. But the water in the tub as well as outdoor bath were nice and hot. The second complain would be location being about 20 minutes walk from commercial area (restaurants. stores, cable car station). I mean 20 minutes downhill, the return uphill took much longer. We decided to leave the car at the hotel because the road was narrow and windy, so we were pretty tired coming back. But the hotel itself was very nice, we had good experience and we only wish that more people will visit it. We strongly recommend it.